


My Storyteller Oppa

by Emmandroid



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-27
Updated: 2016-05-27
Packaged: 2018-07-10 12:54:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6985978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmandroid/pseuds/Emmandroid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Doyoung reads to kids in the library on weekends, but he doesn't want anyone to know.</p><p>The reason might or might not involve a bunny suit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Storyteller Oppa

“Alright, class dismissed.”

It’s been another long day for Doyoung, and the second year accounting major is relieved he could be reunited with his bed in just a few short minutes. He's already packed his bag before their professor called dismissal, brain simply refusing to absorb any more information toward the end of the lecture, instead listlessly staring at his watch and counting down the minutes to freedom.

But Ten, his ever so energetic friend Ten, still has the enthusiasm of a boy on his first day at university, even after suffering through a day of droning professors and PowerPoint slides. “So since by some miracle of the universe, we don’t have an exam scheduled next week…”

“Amen,” Taeil can’t help but exclaim, just as enthralled by the idea of a week without having to pull an all-nighter and practically infuse instant coffee into their bodies.

“Yes, continuing, I asked my parents if we could spend the weekend at our beach house. They said yes!”

Claps and cheers of assent erupt from their little group, Ten having always talked about their summer house and now finally being able to take them there. Mark starts excitedly listing down what they need to pack, Taeyong and Taeil go into a discussion about water sports, and Ten, their gracious host, looks very pleased with himself.

“I can’t go,” whispers Doyoung, but is enough to be heard, going by the heads turning to him and the smiles dropping off of their faces.

“Why?”

“Just, I have to be somewhere.”

“You're fiddling with your fingers. What are you hiding, Doyoung?”

“Nothing! I just have something to do this Saturday.”

“And you can’t cancel?”

“I can’t.”

Whereas his other friends all seem to have accepted the news, albeit with obvious disappointment, Ten still looks entirely unconvinced of his reasons. He regards Doyoung with a quirk of an eyebrow and an accusatory finger pointing at him. “Are you dating someone without telling us?”

“What? Of course not!”

“Ten, you know Doyoung only has eyes on that cute guy from architecture.”

Doyoung never actually appreciates when his crush is brought up in conversation, regarding his drunken slip of the tongue as his biggest mistake of his life, but, and never did he imagine he'd think this, he's actually thankful his friends know he likes Jung Jaehyun. Because right now it just makes Ten’s hypothesis look ridiculous.

“Well, for all we know, he could be dating Jung Jaehyun,” explains Ten, still unrelenting.

“If he were dating the single hottest guy in our calculus class, he probably would have bragged about it at every possible opportunity.”

“Yeah, I would have.” He realizes too late that that was a trap, to the shy giggles of his friends. “I'm not doing anything dangerous or particularly exciting this weekend, but I've had it scheduled for a while now. So as much as I really want to join you, because god knows how long Ten here has been bragging about their summer house, I can’t bail. And I'm not dating anyone, and definitely not Jung Jaehyun. He's still just the cute guy in calculus.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say I'm bummed, and that I'm not a little bit curious, but we believe you, Dokki.”

“We’ll send you a postcard.”

“But you'll only be gone for two days.”

“We’ll bring you sand?”

“Just take pictures.”

Fortunately, his friends stop pushing after that. Because he's already embarrassed enough that his friends are privy to his feelings for their cute classmate; they don’t need to know that their Dokki takes his nickname very literally.

 

\---

 

“Appa, read me a bedtime story,” the boy pleads to his father, sniffling into the stuffed toy in his arms as thunder roars outside.

“Of course, my little angel,” the man concedes, plucking out a storybook from the shelf and lifting the hardbound cover. He smiles at his boy all tucked up in his blankets and takes his hand before beginning, “Once upon a time…”

Doyoung is in love with books, with words, with stories. They both help him make sense of the world and escape into an altogether different one; endings leave him hopeful, wistful, elated, crushed. Books make him human. Books make him feel.

And when he sits down with one in front of a group of wide-eyed children, all eager to listen to him narrate a tale of adventure and grandeur, he thinks books…are meant to be shared.

“Once upon a time…”

 

\---

 

Jaehyun could have still been sleeping now. He could have still been wrapped in his warm cocoon of a comforter with his alarm turned off and the curtains protecting him from the evil that is glaring sunshine. But no, on this fine Saturday morning that he should have spent sleeping in, his older sister had to have an important emergency meeting, and he, as the younger brother, had to accompany his nephew to the library. He found it quite incredulous that his four-year old nephew needed to be taken to the town library, when he, the college student, never even went there.

But of course Jisung wasn’t there to write a book report (Did you honestly think Jisung wants to go to the library to do research???), no of course not – it turns out that some Saturdays, the library hosts a storytelling corner for the local kids, and apparently all the little toddlers are just enthralled by their storyteller oppa.

At least let this storyteller oppa be a handsome oppa, he thinks, as his nephew bounces down the sidewalk, calling to him every five seconds or so to hurry up because they were going to be late. When they do reach the library, Jisung is practically racing up the steps and Jaehyun subliminally wishes he had his nephew’s energy. He feels like such an old man all of a sudden.

“Come on, Jaeeeee,” the boy whines, waiting for his uncle to just walk in through the double doors before he's sprinting towards what Jaehyun could only assume to be the storytelling corner. He hopes that the four-year old just knows where he's going, because he doesn’t have the patience or the stamina to look for him in between shelves of musty textbooks and college students dozing off along the aisles.

That just leaves the question – what does he do now?

Realizing belatedly that he should have at least brought some schoolwork with him, or his phone, he sighs as he feels for it in his jeans pocket and fails to grasp it. Dejectedly, he decides to just browse through the children’s section. Yes, he knows perfectly well that he is an adult, but if he's only going to be in the library for an hour or two, he’ll read something short and he knows he can finish within that time frame – so a children’s book it is. He's debating between Peter Pan and Grimm’s Fairytales when from the corner of his eye, he sees a body shifting and hurriedly passing through the shelves; which is strange because he's in the children’s section and he's sure no kid is that tall.

But then he thinks about how he is that tall and in the children’s section, so it shouldn’t be weird at all. Do adults really come here to read storybooks normally? Still undecided between the two books in his hands; he follows the stranger in the direction he scurried off to. But it appears he'd underestimated the other’s speed, (Why is he even running anyway? He's afraid to be seen in the children’s section?) because a couple of shelves down, Jaehyun's lost him. Feeling the weight of what he's holding, he makes up his mind on Peter Pan and goes to put the other book back and then slides down to the floor and starts reading. 

But, and not surprisingly, he doesn’t even make it to the second chapter before the quiet of the library lulls him to sleep. He doesn’t notice he's drifted off until someone taps him on the shoulder, and then he jolts awake. He must have gone spastic there – he does that sometimes when he's surprised – because the other person reflexively jumps back. He's busy wiping the drool off his chin when the kind stranger starts talking to him. “Hi. Jisung said he came here with his Uncle Jaehyun, so I'm assuming that would be you?”

Kill him now, thinks Jaehyun, as the voice sparks recognition. And true enough, when he looks up he's staring into the big, beautiful eyes of “Doyoung! Hi!” – the cute guy in calculus. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep. Where is he? Has he been waiting long?”

“Easy there. It’s alright; you'd probably still be sleeping home at this time. He's fine, he's sitting close to the entrance, and no, he hasn’t been waiting long…although you probably should get going right now. He did mention he was hungry.”

“Right. And thank you, Doyoung.” He smiles, making sure to flash his dimples cutely.

“No problem,” replies Doyoung, stretching his mouth in a sunny grin.

And even as they’ve said their goodbyes and have turned their backs to each other, their smiles remain fixed on their faces, their hearts beating violently in their chests and their minds a mess.

But neither of them knows that.

 

\---

 

“So, Jisung, do you have storytelling at the library tomorrow?” he asks nonchalantly at dinner the next week.

“Yes. Why?”

“I was thinking I could take you there like last time.”

“Last time, you fell asleep and we had to look for you.”

Jaehyun blushes. Of course his nephew would mention that. “I won’t tomorrow. In fact, I’ll even join you so you won’t have to look for me.”

“Why the sudden interest, Jaehyun?” asks his sister, surprised at his sudden interest in chaperoning Jisung, when she had to literally drag him out of bed last week.

“Yeah, why the sudden interest, Jaehyun?” asks Jisung with feigned curiosity, because telling by the way he scrunches his eyes and raises his brow (How does he even already know how to do that?) at Jaehyun, the little goblin knows more than he's letting on.

“Well, I don’t really have anything to do tomorrow and you might be called on an emergency meeting again, so I’ll just volunteer to do it right now.”

“Okay,” his sister assents with lingering suspicion. But then again, she really doesn’t need to know why Jaehyun is offering to accompany Jisung to the library; she’s just happy that’s one less thing she has to worry about. “Alright, Jisung honey, why don’t you go upstairs now and take a bath? I’ll do the dishes.”

“Help me, hyung?” he pleads “cutely” at Jaehyun, as his mother coos in the background.

“Of course, nephew,” he agrees with a very strained smile, puckering his cheeks to make his dimples pop out. “Let’s go give you a bath.”

As soon as they're upstairs and out of his sister’s earshot, Jaehyun is unceremoniously dragged to the bathroom by his nephew. “You have a crush on Doyoung hyung, don’t you?”

“What? Where did you get that idea?” Jaehyun retaliates in mock scandal, but Jisung just gives him a blank look that means to say he's not buying it and that he should stop wasting both their times and just tell the truth.

“Fine; you got me. He's cute.”

“You just saw him one time.”

“No. I’ll have you know, smarty-pants, that Doyoung and I share a class together at university – calculus. How do you think he was able to recognize me at the library?”

“Because I told him my uncle probably fell asleep while reading.”

“You didn’t. I am not that predictable.”

“I did and you are.”

“You scare me. How about you? How do you know Doyoung?”

“If you know Doyoung hyung, why don’t you know he reads to kids in the library on Saturdays?”

“Wait, Doyoung is storyteller oppa? And I didn’t know that because we’re not really close,” he explains in a whisper, feeling more wistful with each word. “I can’t really talk to him. I'm shy.”

Jisung looks to be swaying between being disappointed and exasperated, and feeling bad about his inability to approach his crush. “Geez, I never pegged you for the shy type. You're so bubbly all the time…and cocky and full of yourself…”

“Okay, I get it. But with Doyoung, I just…have you seen him smile? Like really smile? He's like…the sun when he does – he's so bright you have to look away.”

“I thought you were going to say he's so hot you can’t get too close.”

“Well, that too.”

“So what are you going to do tomorrow? Just sit through his story and ogle him while he reads?”

“No. tomorrow, I am going to talk to him. And when he sees me, I won’t have horrible hair and drool on my face. In fact – I am going to go to my room right now and plan what to wear.” With a determined spirit, Jaehyun bounds up to his room but then remembers something and peeks back in from the doorway. “You can take a bath by yourself, right, Jisung?”

“Yes, hyung.”

“Alright. See you in the morning!”

He's all bravado now, but Jisung is a hundred percent sure that tomorrow, his uncle will go back to being a nervous mess.

Guess he has to play cupid.

 

\---

 

Curious, she thinks, as she observes her brother and her son at breakfast Saturday morning. Last week, Jisung had been talking their heads off about how excited he was to go to the library again after so long (it had only been a week) and listen to storyteller oppa read them a new, exciting fairytale. This morning, he looks as if he'd just been told she enrolled him in daycare (which she did, but now doesn’t seem like the best time to bring that up with Jisung). Jaehyun on the other hand, is giggling into his cereal bowl, while just last week, he looked like he would pass back out at the breakfast table after being woken up and told last minute that he had to bring Jisung to the library. Very curious.

“Alright, boys, I’ll be out doing errands this morning. Jae, thank you for taking Jisung to the library. Just call me if anything comes up. Jisung sweetie, don’t be so rowdy at the library, okay? But have fun.” She places a kiss on her son’s forehead as she says this and then with one last wave goodbye to both boys, heads on out while making a final mental rundown of the things she has to accomplish today.

The walk to the library feels exactly like how it was last week, but with the roles reversed. Jaehyun is the one bouncing down the sidewalk giddily while Jisung could only try to keep up with his uncle’s long legs. “Jisung, come on! We’re going to be late for storytelling!”

“Do you realize how ridiculous that sounded?”

“Don’t be such a raincloud. Why are you not excited about this anyway? You love storytelling!”

“Not when my uncle is going to embarrass me in front of everyone, I don’t.”

“I am not going to embarrass you, young mister. You won’t even notice I'm there.” He huffs, crossing his arms over his chest as if offended by the accusation.

“I'm pretty sure I will, but sure, let’s just go.”

When they make it to the storytelling corner, there are already a handful of kids settling down but more are still coming in with their parents or older siblings. “Wow, are you always this many?”

“No. When I first attended, there were about only five of us, but the kids that were there really had fun so they told their parents. And then those parents told other parents, and every week we just get more and more. But not a lot of people really come here on Saturday mornings, so the librarians don’t mind. Doyoung hyung does a pretty good job of getting kids to behave so we don’t make too much noise.”

And Jaehyun knows he shouldn’t really, but he can’t help but feel some form of secondhand pride at his nephew’s praise for Doyoung. Geez, boyfriend much? “Speaking of Doyoung, what time does he usually get here?”

“He’ll be here soon enough. I’ll take a seat at my spot now. Do not sit next to me.”

“Wow, okay mister grumpy pants.”

Just as Jisung leaves him (the traitor), a girl about his age approaches Jaehyun. “Hi! Bringing your little brother along to storytelling too?”

Oh no, thinks Jaehyun, not this again. “He’s actually my nephew,” he regards the girl’s question before quickly turning his head back front.

“Is this his first time? I don’t think I've ever seen you here…and I'm pretty sure I’d remember.”

“I've only accompanied him recently.” He makes sure to keep his answers short, cringing at the girl’s pickup line. He always feels so awkward when girls try to hit on him, but he makes sure to remain polite. Usually, after one or two clipped answers, they already get the message that he's not interested, but this girl is either really oblivious or really persistent. Jaehyun has to hand it to her though – she can keep the “conversation” going without him doing any talking. Be nice, he reminds himself, as he tries to pay attention to the girl, when he really just wants to say, “Hey, you know, that’s really interesting, but I'm gay and I'm not interested.”

Too preoccupied with the girl, he doesn’t notice Doyoung finally enter or notice how his cheerful smile slips off his face the moment his eyes land on Jaehyun.

Jisung though, he does.

So the boy strides right up to where Jaehyun is standing awkwardly, pokes the girl in the leg, and unabashedly tells her, “He’s gay so stop wasting your time.” And then he takes Jaehyun's hand and drags him, to his utmost mortification, to his seat, which coincidentally happens to be right at the head of the group – smack in front of Doyoung, who is wearing a bunny suit.

Hold on.

Doyoung is wearing a bunny suit.

Doyoung – his beautiful, adorable crush Doyoung, who he's always cutely thought resembled a bunny, is in fact dressed like one.

And he's running away.

Doyoung is running away.

“Well, aren’t you going to chase him?”

“Yeah…yeah, I am.” He takes some time to get up though, mind still struggling to process Doyoung in a bunny suit. The level of cuteness sent his brain into haywire. He runs as fast as he can, or at least as fast as he thinks is permissible in the library, but sees no sign of Doyoung anywhere. In a last attempt, he goes up to the front desk to ask the librarian on duty. “Hi. Have you maybe seen a guy in a bunny suit anywhere? You can’t miss him. It’s a guy in a bunny suit.”

Unbeknownst to him, the bunny he's looking for is hiding under the front desk, tugging conspiratorially at the librarian’s pant leg so she doesn’t rat him out.

“He's here. Doyoung, someone’s looking for you,” she smiles down at her friend, who is feeling very much betrayed and embarrassed. Knowing there's no more sense hiding, he pops up from his spot under the table. Jaehyun stifles his comment about him looking like a bunny springing out of his hole. Doyoung’s face is flushed red when he appears, hair looking disheveled after having removed his hood with the bunny ears and sleeve halfway off his shoulder.

“Hi,” Jaehyun greets him, as the librarian slips away to presumably give them privacy.

“Hi,” Doyoung replies, fiddling with his fingers inside his onesie and still refusing to look at him.

“There's nothing to be shy about.”

“I'm in a bunny suit!” he looks up now, indignant, like Jisung when you tell him he looks like a chick. “This is probably how you'll imagine me every time you see me in class from now on.” He then gives a rueful sigh and pouts his lips, Jaehyun feeling his knees buckle because Doyoung just keeps assaulting him with his unintentionally adorable acts.

“I actually think it’s very cute. It really brings out your eyes.”

“How?” Doyoung wonders, face transforming from miserable to confused to plain judgmental.

“You have bunny eyes.”

“Okay, bye, Jaehyun.” But Jaehyun doesn’t let him leave, hand finding purchase in the other’s paw.

“You have the most beautiful eyes. They're bright and big and make you look like you're always surprised.” Okay, Doyoung is not pleased with what he just heard. Jaehyun, you have ten seconds to turn this around, you dingdong. 

“You have the most beautiful smile. When it’s real, it occupies your entire face and your eyes scrunch at the sides but are still huge.” Okay, now Doyoung is gaping and he looks like he wants to slap him.

“You are the most beautiful soul for coming here every Saturday to read to kids, when you could be at home sleeping in or catching up on schoolwork or hanging out with friends. You are the most beautiful soul for putting up with that bunny suit, even if you think it makes you look stupid, because you know how much the kids love it and makes their day. You are the most beautiful soul and…and my nephew adores you.”

“Oh. How nice of him,” says Doyoung, eyes pleading, waiting, lingering.

“…and I do too. That’s why I came here today. I wanted to tell you that.”

“I…I'm speechless. I didn’t think you even knew me.”

“Well, it’s hard to steal glances when you're always at the back. It'd be too obvious. And as much as I want to approach you after class, you're always with your friends. I don’t think I have the gall to ask you out when they're around. They seem very protective of you.”

“So all this time, my friends have been cockblocking me without any of our knowledge.”

They're both shyly smiling now like the smitten schoolboys that they really are, too absorbed in the discovery that their feelings have been mutual all along. Too absorbed that they don’t notice the horde of kids that have gathered to watch, until of course Jisung alerts the two of their presence. Of course.

“I believe it’s storytelling time?”

They immediately jump apart, violently blushing in embarrassment, Jaehyun coughing into a fist and Doyoung scratching at his neck. “I am so sorry, kids. Do forgive your Dotokki oppa. Let’s go read that story now?”

The kids bob their heads in excited agreement before pattering back to the reading corner. “Dotokki oppa?”

“Please don’t call me that.”

“I will though. Dotokki oppaaaaa…Jisung, why are you still here?”

“Because if I leave, you'll continue flirting for at least ten more minutes.”

“Ah, he's right. I should get going. I’ll talk to you later?”

“Or…”

 

\---

 

And that’s how in the end, the kids have two storyteller oppas reading to them on Saturday mornings – Dotokki hyung and Woojae hyung. Doyoung still wears his bunny suit while Jaehyun has taken to a similar puppy onesie, and with his newly permed hair, he looks like a cute poodle. They’ve even convinced Jisung to join them in a bright yellow chick onesie, saying it would help him impress a girl in the group he's started to have a crush on.

Doyoung’s friends find out when Taeil takes his cousin to storytelling one Saturday and tells the group behind his back. They come to have a laugh and take some pictures of him for blackmail, but seeing how enthralled the kids are with him and Jaehyun and how passionate the couple is about their volunteer work, they return the next week to help manage the increasing number of children who have come for story time.

If you had asked Doyoung when he started, he would never have imagined it to gain this big of an audience or that he would get recognized by the mayor for his work. He really just wanted kids to appreciate books as much as he did and see the smiles bloom on their faces as he read.

Then again, if you had asked him when he started, he also would have never imagined his first conversation with his crush to take place here in the library in a bunny suit or that Jaehyun would ask him to be his boyfriend here in the library in a puppy suit.

But if there’s one thing Doyoung has learned from all these storybooks, it’s that you never know at the beginning what will happen in the end. You just have to keep reading, flip a page at a time, and wait for the story to unfold. And when he looks at Jaehyun across the room while the kids settle down, he couldn’t be any happier at how this story unfolded.

It all begins with

“Once upon a time…”

**Author's Note:**

> I just thought it'd be lovely to have Doyoung reading to kids and Doyoung wearing a bunny suit, so I wrote both.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed reading this! ^_^


End file.
